NAME

       newhelp - generate a performance metrics help database

SYNOPSIS

       $PCP_BINADM_DIR/newhelp [-V?]  [-n pmnsfile] [-o outputfile] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

       newhelp  generates  the  Performance  Co-Pilot  help  text files used by Performance Metric Domain Agents
       (PMDAs).

       Normally newhelp operates on the default Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), however if the -n  option
       is specified an alternative namespace is loaded from the file pmnsfile.

       When  there  is  only  one  input file, the base name of the new database is derived from the name of the
       input file, otherwise the -o flag must be given to explicitly name the database.  If no input  files  are
       supplied, newhelp reads from the standard input stream, in which case the -o flag must be given.

       If the output file name is determined to be foo, newhelp will create foo.dir and foo.pag.

       The -V flag causes verbose messages to be printed while newhelp is parsing its input.

       The  first  line  of  each  entry in a help source file consists of an ``@'' character beginning the line
       followed by a space and then the performance metric name and  a  one  line  description  of  the  metric.
       Following  lines  (up  to  the  next line beginning with ``@'' or end of file) may contain a verbose help
       description.  E.g.

            #
            # This is an example of newhelp's input syntax
            #
            @ kernel.all.cpu.idle CPU idle time
            A cumulative count of the number of milliseconds
            of CPU idle time, summed over all processors.

       Three-part numeric metric identifiers (PMIDs) may be used in place of metric names, e.g.  60.0.23  rather
       than  kernel.all.cpu.idle in the example above.  Other than for dynamic metrics (where the existence of a
       metric is known to a PMDA, but not visible in the PMNS and hence has no  name  that  could  be  known  to
       newhelp) use of this syntactic variant is not encouraged.

       Lines  beginning  with  ``#''  are  ignored,  as are blank lines in the file before the first ``@''.  The
       verbose help text is optional.

       As a special case, a ``metric'' name of the form NNN.MM (for numeric NNN and MM)  is  interpreted  as  an
       instance domain identification, and the text describes the instance domain.

OPTIONS

       The available command line options are:

       -o output, --output=outout
            Specify base name for output files.

       -n pmnsfile, --namespace=pmnsfile
            Load an alternative Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS(5)) from the file pmnsfile.

       -V   Print verbose output.

       -?, --help
            Display usage message and exit.

FILES

       $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
            default PMNS specification files

PCP ENVIRONMENT

       Environment  variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the file and directory names used by
       PCP.  On each installation, the file /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for  these  variables.   The
       $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration file, as described in pcp.conf(5).

       For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).

SEE ALSO

       chkhelp(1), PMAPI(3), pmLookupInDomText(3), pmLookupText(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and PMNS(5).